Platts - Tuesday, June 22, 2004 http://www.platts.com ------------ EDF board approves new EPR Paris (Platts)--22Jun2004 The Electricite de France (EDF) board approved a commitment to a new EPR nuclear unit. At a meeting today, EDF directors authorized Chairman/CEO Francois Roussely to "take all steps necessary to launch the process leading to construction of a head-of-series EPR" (European PWR). EDF said Roussely will meet with regional officials interested in hosting the unit and report back to the board by Aug. 1. After those consultations, EDF will apply to the National Commission for Public Debate to launch the required public debate on the project. Regulatory procedures would follow that debate, EDF said, and the construction of the reactor would last a projected 57 months. ------------ Arguments heard on issues related to ESP proceeding Washington (Platts)--21Jun2004 Attorneys spent considerable time today sorting out what issues can be contested in an early site permit (ESP) proceeding. A pre-hearing conference began this morning at NRC headquarters in Rockville, Md. on the three ESP applications--Exelon Generation's Clinton, Dominion Nuclear's North Anna, and System Energy Resources Inc.'s Grand Gulf. There are seven challengers in the cases, with several groups filing contentions in more than one proceeding. During the morning session, a three-member panel of NRC administrative judges heard arguments on whether the applicants should evaluate constructing the reactor containment underground for advanced nuclear plants and the suitability of siting a new reactor near an existing plant. The conference may wrap up tomorrow, said Judge Paul Bollwerk, who expects the panel will make a decision on the admissibility of the contentions by mid-July. ------------ ElBaradei wants NSG, IAEA working more closely on nuclear exports Washington (Platts)--21Jun2004 The Nuclear Suppliers Group (NSG) and the IAEA should work together more closely to track nuclear exports, IAEA Director General Mohamed ElBaradei said today. Speaking at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace's nonproliferation conference in Washington, D.C., ElBaradei said he would discuss the proposal when he met with NSG officials later this month. "The priority is to get information on who is getting what," ElBaradei said. He also said the scope of NSG controls should be expanded by making the group's guidelines binding and by increasing the group's membership to include countries such as Malaysia, India, and Pakistan that are not NSG members but that have the capacity to produce nuclear- related equipment. ------------ IAEA "deplores" Iran's lack of full cooperation Washington (Platts)--18Jun2004 The IAEA board said it "deplores" Iran's lack of full cooperation with agency inspectors. In a resolution adopted today at its meeting in Vienna, the Board of Governors welcomed the cooperation Iran had provided in facilitating some aspects of agency inspections and commended Teheran for its voluntary decision to suspend all enrichment- and reprocessing-related activities. But the board said it "regrets that those commitments have not been comprehensively implemented." In addition to calling on Iran to "correct all remaining shortcomings" in that regard, the board suggested other confidence- building measures Teheran could take. It set no deadline for compliance, but the agency asked Iran to report back "well in advance" of its September meeting. U.S. Ambassador Kenneth Brill said in a statement that the U.S. "welcomed the adoption" of the resolution, and added that "the U.S. continues to believe that Iran's documented non-compliance should be reported to the United Nations Security Council and that its nuclear program presents a threat to international peace and security." The text of the resolution is on the IAEA's Web site (http://www.iaea.org). ------------